Gia Frino’s fight back against her stalker ex-partner

A nightmare stalker posted ongoing online ads labelling his ex as an escort, resulting in men turned up to her home at all hours. She fought back — and he is now facing more than 100 charges. READ HOW

A suburban mum found herself forced to convince strangers at her front door that she wasn't selling sex after a bitter ex-boyfriend repeatedly posted advertisements claiming she was a professional escort.

He also flouted an AVO almost every day and posted online a series of explicit images that he had taken without her knowledge, forcing her to spend days and nights scrambling to have them taken down.

Gia Frino has slammed authorities for failing to protect her during the prolonged stalking campaign, describing how she had to assemble her own dossier of CCTV footage and a mountain of evidence to help police prosecute the case.

Now as her tormentor is set to face court for the horror he inflicted, Ms Frino has laid bare the extent of her ordeal and pleaded with authorities to fix a “broken system” that leaves victims feeling desperate and alone.

“I have had to deal with approximately 30 different police officers through the reporting process, only four were female,” Ms Frino told The Saturday Telegraph.

Gia Frino is pleading with authorities to fix a “broken system” that leaves stalking victims feeling alone and desperate. Picture: Tim Hunter

“Six out of that 30 were excellent, the other 24 made me want to either kill myself at the worst or wish I never walked into the police station to make a report.”

“I’m angry, frustrated, sad and extremely exhausted.

“I feel exposed and scared because I can’t trust that the people and the system that is supposed to protect me will be there when I need them without me having to fight for them to do their job. My tank is empty.”

The alleged offender, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, has pleaded guilty to two charges relating to Ms Frino’s case and is facing another 100 charges.

The man, currently in custody, is understood to have expressed his intention to plead guilty to the other charges at his next court appearance later this year.

Ms Frino believes dozens more charges should be laid — for which she has provided evidence to police — and fears the charges will be “lumped together so there’s less paperwork”.

This CCTV image gathered by Ms Frino shows a man approaching Gia's home thinking she was an escort.

“I want every charge dealt with individually, not grouped together for ease of processing. That will mean he gets a lesser sentence. I want every single incident he put me through dealt with,” she said.

“And I want police to have a zero tolerance attitude to domestic violence and believe a victim when they come for help.

“To be empathetic from the start, to follow up and keep in contact with the victim, to not make them question whether they are being believed or whether they are somehow responsible for the abuse.

“There should be no little comments, inference that the victim has done something wrong. Every lead, every report should be followed through to the end.”

HOW IT BEGAN

Ms Frino’s nightmare started when the casual relationship ended in May 2022 after several months of dating.

Police put in place an apprehended violence order to protect her after she reported her tyres had been slashed, her door scratched and a light smashed.

Some of the online abuse Ms Frino suffered.

She also reported that her ex had parked outside her home, called her 30 times and messaged her multiple times, despite the AVO in place.

In the following two weeks Ms Frino received multiple calls from “no caller ID”, from pay phones of which she traced the numbers, and from the man’s Facebook account’s “disappearing messenger”.

She reported the incident to police.

In the following days she received 12 calls from a payphone a short distance from her ex’s home, then 53 calls from the same pay phone the following day.

Again, she reported the incidents to police.

While the AVO was in place Ms Frino discovered a facebook profile called “Gia Bambino” where two stories were posted clearly showing her face and bio saying she worked as “Little s**t at Riding dicks”.

Some of the online abuse Ms Frino suffered.

She again notified police and reached out to the eSafety Commissioner who organised for the page to be taken down. Within an hour a new page surfaced.

“I would report a post to police and then a new one would come up,” she said.

“Most of the time it was minutes, one time I was literally standing in the police station waiting to make a report, and on my phone getting a profile taken down and within a minute or two a new one was up.”

“I could go on and on with examples of what happened, and me going back to the police station over and over again giving them the evidence.”

POLICE RESPONSE

Despite the existence of the interim apprehended violence order Ms Frino’s nightmare continued.

She made 11 more complaints to police about the “escalating abuse”.

Eleven more online profiles across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and classified advertisement website Locanto.

The most traumatic were accounts with her home address and phone number describing her as a 24-hour escort.

“The intimate images were recorded and distributed without my consent. I have told police multiple times he never had permission to record the images and they still haven’t charged him with that offence,” she said.

“There are multiple outstanding breaches with no formal action taken. Why?

“I’m not saying the police didn’t do their job, they took reports each time, but if it wasn’t for my persistence I don’t think they ever would have contacted me and followed this through.

“It took me months of hounding to get action, they always did the bare minimum.”

Some of the online abuse Ms Frino suffered.

Ms Frino wants to know why police never requested any of the data from the platforms.

She also wants to know why, despite a mountain of physical evidence, some incidents have not resulted in her ex being charged with further offences: “The evidence is all there.”

Ms Frino made a complaint about the handling of her case to the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission, which referred it back to Lake Illawarra to investigate.

Lake Illawarra decided not to move forward with the complaint, she said.

The second complaint she made about an individual officer, which the Lake Illawarra command investigated and ruled the officer did his job.

Ms Frino then referred her complaint to Professional Standards that sustained two complaints against the officer — he failed to investigate a domestic and family violence-related incident and that he falsified official records.

Ms Frino hasn’t been notified of the “proposed management action”.

PLEA TO LOCAL MP

Feeling frightened and alone, Ms Frino wrote to Shellharbour MP Anna Watson, expressing her frustration at the police handling of her case.

In the letter dated August 4, 2022, she claimed her abuser had breached the AVO every day since it was taken out, except for about seven days.

“Besides the breaches, he is committing other criminal acts that seem to be ignored by the police. He has broken the below laws on multiple occasions,” she wrote.

“I don’t feel protected, I don’t feel safe and I’m being violated daily.

“The police have evidence in the way of text messages, emails, and voicemails where he states he doesn’t care about the damage, that he is coming for me, that I need to brace myself because he isn’t going to stop, and that he doesn’t care about the police.”

Labor Member for Shellharbour Anna Watson says she “really feels” for Ms Frino. Picture: Dylan Arvela

She told the MP there were warrants out for the man’s arrest “but no one is looking for him”.

“I feel my story will end in two ways, either I become another domestic violence murder statistic or I become another suicide statistic because I have been given no other solution, plan, help from authorities or hope that this man will be stopped.

“All I want is the authority that said they can protect me to do that and, if they can’t, then don’t ignore me.”

Ten days later Ms Watson responded telling her the matter had been referred to former Attorney-General Mark Speakman and then police minister Paul Toole.

This week Ms Watson told The Saturday Telegraph she “really feels” for Ms Frino and the “psychological torture” she suffered.

She hit out at the Liberal Party for not supporting her proposed coercive control legislation which “had teeth” and called for mandatory sentencing for this kind of behaviour.

She said she also supported any investment in more family and domestic violence liaison officers in each police command.

ARMED WITH EVIDENCE

On September 25, Ms Frino walked into her local police station “armed with a computer laptop and a running investigation she had conducted on a Microsoft Word document,” the police officer noted.

“The victim disclosed to police that the defendant had been contacting her on her mobile phone and posting ads online which depict her to be a prostitute,” the police officer reported.

“Police conducted a DVEC (domestic violence evidence in chief) interview with the victim and captured much of the evidence in relation to the text messages on the video.”

This CCTV image gathered by Ms Frino shows a man near Gia's home thinking she was an escort.

The officer logged the messages received from August 23 to September 25, 2022.

They included: “lmao just so you know I’ve run a 2nd lot of ads”, “I would have used your new number but I feel its best just letting people try your address. Enjoy.”

And this: “The only way is up for me only you can be dragged down and embarrassed lol”.

and “just so you know I’m always ten steps ahead” and “prepare for the worst”.

The alleged offender was arrested in Queensland on September 27.

“I had given them all the information about his profession and that he had called me from Queensland, where to find him. I had done their job for them,” she said.

HER TRAUMA CONTINUES

While Ms Frino waits for the case to draw to a close and tries to move on with her life, she knows the damage is irreparable.

“I don’t go out as much as I did prior to the abuse, and I don’t socialise with my family and friends in the same way any more. It is extremely difficult to explain to them why.

“I’m constantly on edge and looking over my shoulder.”

She is focusing on studying law at university — her way of taking control and giving something back, fighting for better rights and protection of the thousands of women who suffer at the hands of domestic violence abusers.

Though like many victims, Ms Frino is afraid she will never wake up from her nightmare.

The day before his arrest, she received this message.

“Your a proper c--t and deserve everything I serve up. I feel no regret whatsoever and I’m not afraid to post what I want when I want”.

A NSW Police spokeswoman said that as this matter is before the courts, it would be inappropriate to comment further. Inquiries are continuing.

NSW Police takes all reports of domestic violence seriously, the spokeswoman said.

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